'I don’t want to outsource my brain': How political cartoonists are bringing AI into their work

Long gone are the days when hundreds of full-time editorial cartoonists were employed by major daily newspapers across the U.S. The Herb Block Scholarship estimates the number of cartoonists working at papers nationwide has dropped from 120 to just 30 over the past 25 years. In 2023, three Pulitzer-winning cartoonists were laid off by the McClatchy newspaper chain in just one day.

As print continues its decline, a new challenge has emerged for this workforce: the rise of AI image generators. The first major text-to-image models were released back in 2022 and quickly ignited debates about copyright infringement and labor displacement among illustration communities. That year, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) banned the use of AI-generated imagery in its membership applications and awards, citing the technology’s ability to deprive artists “of opportunities to make a living.”

In recent weeks, this debate reemerged, after OpenAI rolled out its latest image generation feature on March 25. In part, the update allowed users to easily generate images of public figures for the first time, which OpenAI said would more freely permit the use of ChatGPT for “satire and political commentary.”

In the week that followed, 130 million users generated more than 700 million images using ChatGPT, according to OpenAI. Social media platforms like X and Instagram were quickly flooded with AI-generated cartoon portraits, many mimicking the soft pastel animation style of Studio Ghibli films. Alongside billionaires and celebrities, cartoons of political figures inundated social feeds, including viral posts featuring Donald Trump and Narendra Modi.

Cartoon stylings are now in the hands of every ChatGPT user. Though, arguably, a caricature of a president without the wit and biting commentary of a cartoonist isn’t a political cartoon at all. Rather than ask if AI can be used to create mimic cartoons, I was curious if any actual working cartoonists see value in these technologies. And if they do, how exactly they are using them.

To get a better sense, I spoke to Joe Dworetzky at Bay City News and Pulitzer-winner Mark Fiore, two established cartoonists who have been experimenting with generative AI. While many cartoonists have sworn off AI entirely, Dworetzky and Fiore are grappling with how these tools could assist in, not replace, their work.

Playing in the AI sandbox

Editorial cartooning is a second act for Joe Dworetzky, who practiced law for 35 years before pursuing journalism full time. In 2020, he landed a reporter role at Bay City News, an Oakland-based regional journalism nonprofit, and folded his off-the-clock cartooning hobby into his coverage. For the past five years he’s published political and social cartoons under the column “Bay City Sketchbook.” Eventually, he started incorporating some cartoons into his regular legal affairs stories.

“Cartoons can be good even if they’re not beautifully drawn,” said Dworetzky, explaining that since he came to cartooning later in life, his technical ability hasn’t always matched his ambitions. “I’ve always been very frustrated by my limited drawing skills.”

After the first major AI image generators, like OpenAI’s Dall-E and Adobe’s Firefly, were released, Dworetzky jumped at the chance to test them out. He wondered if the technology could help close the gap between his own imagination and his skill. “The images just had some verve and style to them that was quite surprising to me,” said Dworetzky of those early experiments.

In early 2024, he discovered an image generator called Leonardo AI. Leonardo allowed artists to upload 40 samples of their own work to try to mimic their distinctive style. Dworetzky uploaded a series of celebrity author portraits he’d illustrated for a book project. To his surprise, he saw his own style reflected in Leonardo’s output. “The technical skill felt like it was at the level of mine,” he said.

Dworetzky sees cartoons as primed for assistive AI, considering the form is not tied to accuracy in the same way as other kinds of visual journalism, like courtroom sketches. But he worries about the long-term impact of these tools on the profession, and frames generative AI as an accelerant that could diminish the already contracting editorial cartooning workforce.

“It makes you feel like the value of [cartooning] is on a pathway to zero,” he said, comparing its trajectory to meme pages on social media. He sees meme creators who post their work for free to gain followers. For a select few, it’s a tenable but precarious way to make a living.

“I fear for the profession and the fun of having something that captures what a cartoon does — a beautiful, quick strobe light of a situation,” he said. Dworetzky calls back to the “rich history” of cartooning in democratic politics. “You want cartoonists to exist.”

“Pre-bunking” misinformation

Mark Fiore is used to breaking form. Back in 2010, he became the first person to win a Pulitzer Prize for animated editorial cartoons. He has continued to work as a leading digital cartoonist, publishing animations on SFGATE.com, NPR, and Slate, and launching a Substack that now has over 11,000 subscribers.

Fiore began experimenting with AI tools back in December 2023, testing image generators to see if they could produce background scenes for his animations. For those early tests, he used Leonardo AI, which allowed him to upload 40 of his illustrations, including cartoons about past Israeli incursions into Gaza. Then he prompted the image generator to produce “a Fiore cartoon of a partially destroyed city.”

The images were passable and, in broad strokes, picked up his style. He wrote about the experiments on his Substack, but held off on incorporating these backgrounds into his work.

Fiore has now partnered up with a Stanford computer science student and researcher, Maty Bohacek, who is building custom image generators that are trained on Fiore’s work and can better fit into his animation workflow. Bohacek and Fiore’s prototype is powered by a foundation model called Flux, developed by the German research firm Black Forest Labs.

The tool can already create static background images, including the one featured in “Fun Facts That Matter!” The duo is now fine-tuning the model to produce images of secondary or background characters, including large crowd scenes. The next step will be automating the motion of these characters (eye blinks, arm movements), though Fiore thinks the technology isn’t currently capable of handling main character drawings or other foregrounded visuals.

The only part of production Fiore says he would never use AI tools for is the actual writing and ideation. “For me, it’s much more about the animation production. I don’t want to outsource my brain,” he said.

Outside of his own work, Fiore is not very optimistic about the technology’s downstream effects. For early-career cartoonists, particularly single-panel cartoonists, Fiore worries AI will “eliminate the possibility that someone starting out gets work.” In the past, smaller news outlets might have hired upstart cartoonists. In the near future, he sees those same publishers turning to automation to cut costs. “I definitely see it as a threat,” said Fiore. “I don’t really feel guilty [about my adoption] because the only labor that I’m trying to displace is my own.”

Some days, Fiore has doubts about jumping on the generative AI bandwagon. “Am I gonna look back on this in a few years and say wow, I went way too big on NFTs?” he said with a laugh. Most of the time he’s confident generative AI isn’t a fad, but instead is a useful tool to support his work.

Even if AI-generated imagery does become core to his process, he never plans to put down the stylus entirely. “I don’t want to just be entering text prompts for the rest of my life,” he said. “I got into this because I enjoy drawing — I’m not going to give that part up.”